What's that??

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Most dives are familiar to me, meaning that I have seen most of everything, and know most of the names of the kinds of corals and critters and fish that I see here in the Caribbean.  When I was a scuba instructor, and leading visitors on dives, they would ask, "What was that?"  and having the teacher element in my personality, I just had to have a correct answer, and  gradually learned the names of most of everything comprising the reef community.

Oh, I learned to dive on Grand Cayman Island in 1983, and lived there for eighteen months.  Took my training to Instructor in 1988 in Florida, and taught for about five years.
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I eagerly bought Paul Humann's ID books the minute they were published, in the early 1990's and studied them every day.  I can usually find the right page quickly. 

Anyway, going through my photos of the dive Saturday off the Carambola resort, I had hastily "shot" an Anenome that I thought was a Branching Anenome.

If I'd been diving slowly as photographers do, I may have SEEN this critter, but I was supposed to keep up with the dive guide from the Sweet Bottom Dive Shop, Tony, and my friend Jan, so had to snap and run.  And more than once on this dive I had to rush to catch up.  erghhh...  But any picture taker will have the same whine.  They were NOT going too fast, I was lagging behind.

So now I must go back in the next few days to get better images of this guy.  The usual "Branching Anenomes" have pointy tentacles, with a white stripe down each bit.  And, phooey, I probably have photos of one, but buried in my thousands of photos.

So, after all this noise, a photo of this odd creature:

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Now, I don't normally get  excited about these guys, because I see them occasionally.  They do not do anything except jump a tiny bit if you touch them, which is not a bright idea as they sting.  Or they withdraw completely into the cranny they're living in.  About hand size, under this 'finger' coral.

Aha, but the book says they extend their 'real' tentacles at  night.  Oboy!  Something new for me!




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Here's a close up of the photo that cught my eye.  Hummmm, looks different.











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And here's what most folks probably see.  I have been trained to see, having taken college classes teaching that ability, seeing.  It should be taught regularly in our schools.  How many times is someone unable to describe something they saw in detail?

Having read the book "Blink", perhaps the little difference in this critter, even from a passing distance, caught my attention, making me stop to snap a couple of images, although my companions were swimming on away without me.  Yoohoo!

So, how to find this little buggar again??  One good thing about how I take scenery photos, instead of that fish or that sponge.  Lets see...
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Here's Tony swimming through a bit of a cut through the reef, heading deeper.  I posted this photo on Facebook, complaining about no fish, and was quickly caught because there IS one fish.  Can't win!!






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And then there's this big, old Fan, I'll draw a sketch of it to really burn it into my poor brain.











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A little further on, this big purple Tube Sponge caught my eye.  Must be three feet, a meter, long.  I wonder how old?  Ten, twenty, fifty years?

I believe we leveled out and turned westward shortly after we passed by this fellow.








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OK, then this photo is #61, and the Anenome is #56, so if I see that clump of "Convoluted Barrel Sponge", Aplysinia lacunosa, greenish inside, I'll know we've gone too far.  You can see the sponges down in front here.

Oh, Tony!  Jan!  Come back!!  Slow down!  Golly!



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OK, off to run errands, bank, grocery store, and ??  See you tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by!
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